Yuku free message boards

I attended the Sneak Peek today.  Here’s my take on what I saw. 

V- The highlight of course was Couch’s 9.95.  Looked very good but perhaps could have used a bit more height. Cheek got a 9.9.  Looked well executed in the air.  Stuck the landing but was ever so slightly out of control on the landing.  Jay has a lot of power.  Davis’ vault looked well executed too.    Was disappointed to see Earls fall on her vault.  Tanella had a good vault.  Hires looked ok.  Come January I think the vault lineup will probably be Jay, Hires, Tanella, Davis, Cheek and Couch.  Tanella could be replaced by Earls.  Hopefully Rogers can vault too. 

UB  looked to be the best event right now.  Surprising to me after losing Nuccio and Ding who BTW were in attendance.  The 9.85 of Tanella, Davis, Cheek  were well deserved.  Couch’s maybe not but all of the dismounts were well executed and pretty much stuck.  The handstands looked good from my vantage point as well.   I was frustrated to see Worley doing her same pikey double layout.  My guess for the bars lineup come January will be Jay, Tanella, Couch, Cheek, Davis and  Could be Worley, Persinger, Hires, Earls but my guess would be Rogers. 

BB-  Worley looks good as usual.  I thought she used to have an Onodi in her routine.  Didn’t see it today.  Unick was pretty shaky.  Was probably nervous?  I was also wondering why she didn’t compete on anything else. Injury?  Persinger, Earls, and Cheek all looked good.  Slight balance checks here and there but I believe everyone stayed on the beam except for Mary Beth Box?   I really couldn’t see the beam all that well.  My guess for the BB lineup will be Jay, Earls, Persinger, Cheek, Tanella, and Worley.  Not completely convinced on Jay and Tanella either. Maybe Unick?   

FX-  Best routine IMO was Persinger.  I liked the music and the flow of the routine and she has more grace than anyone else on the team except for Worley.    Jay has a lot of power.  Needs to work on her form.   Her full in first past looked huge to me but maybe that’s because I was only about 3 feet away from it when she landed.  : )  Liked some of her choreography especially at the end of the routine.  Was disappointed  to see Earls is using the same music as last year and what looks to be the same routine with some slightly different choreo at one point in the routine.   Worley looked better on FX than last year. Overall she seems to be in better shape this year but still not where you’d expect someone of her background to be.   Hires tumbling was well executed but the routine over all wasn’t particularly memorable.  Did not care for Couch’s Star Wars.  The splicing of all the different songs was not pretty to the ear and because of that the routine itself is not pretty to watch either.  Tanella and Worley look to be in better shape on this event than in past years.  Worley had a huge double pike that surprised me.  Was disappointed Cheek did not do floor. I thought Demetria Hunte did a fairly nice routine though she ran out of gas on the last pass.  Was surprise though to see her out there at all.  My best guess at the FX lineup will have to be Jay, Earls, Tanella, Persinger, Couch and ??? Hires I guess.   

Overall inpressions: 

Tanella, and Worley look in slightly better condition at this time of year than in year’s past. 

Couch looks to be in the same shape and will be counted on to be the reliable hit routines with the 9.8 scores.  She is amazing though.  I commented to my husband that I don’t think she has been injured once in the 3+ years she has been competing at UGA.  She did the AA almost every meet.   If she competes this year as much as she did last I’m pretty sure she’ll claim the record of competing the most routines for a UGA gymnast over the course of her career. 

Brazeal- the same after 3+ years at UGA.  I seriously doubt she’ll contribute on any event.  She fell on vault and looked more than sluggish on bars.  Can’t remember if she did BB. 

Davis- looked very good on bars and good on vault as well.  Can probably be counted on for 9.85 on these events.  Hope to see her on FX at some point too. 

Cheek- looks the most competition ready of anyone on the team to me.  She’s in great physical shape and it shows in her gymnastics. Seems to have a lot of confidence.   Just hope she can make the FX lineup too. 

Persinger and Hires look to be about the same as last year and that is good on their events.  (Hires-V and Persinger BB and FX)

Earls- Does not look competition ready yet on V or FX.    But maybe she was having an off day. 

Jay- Powerful tumbler with some form issues. Obviously the most impressive of the freshmen so far.   I expect her to do the AA.  Has more difficulty overall than anyone else on the team. 

Unick-  Dissapointed to not see very much of her.  I thought she was good on bars as well as BB.

The other walkons  we might see:  Hunte  on V at some time, maybe Box on FX or possible BB.  Maybe Kirby on BB. 

I hope Rogers can come in and contribute immediately.  They need a good 5-6 score on each event. 

I was a bit disappointed by the way Durante conducted the meet.  Perhaps she was trying to be low key but I wished she would have talked more and with a bit more enthusiasm.  Might sound weird but I was surprised at her attire.  She was wearing a sweatsuit… fine but she looked pretty slouchy wearing a sweatshirt tied around her waist.  She should dress up a bit for any occasion to meet the public.  Combined with her subdued conduct during the meet she did not leave me with much of an impression. 

Overall the team looked about on par with any UGA team I’ve seen over the past 3-4 years at Sneak Peek time.  I’d say their better than their 11^th ranking but I think all the teams from ranked 4-12 are pretty comparable teams right now, with the exception of Utah as I’d put them at 4^th right now. 

Just my take… hope this helps with a little clarification on where the gymdogs seem to be right now.